Various computer based approaches exist which allow an organisation to obtain information. At its simplest, this can be in the form of a website making information on a topic freely available, or available on a subscription basis, to users who can view the information, and possibly download documents, via a browser. However, the information available in this way tends to be general and cannot easily be tailored to its users as the nature of the users is not known beforehand.
At a more sophisticated level, a body providing advisory services, such as attorneys, accountants or other professional services or consultancy firms, may provide a part of their website that clients can log on to in order to obtain general information on various issues. However, again, it is difficult to ensure that the available information is correctly targeted to the potential user. It may be difficult for the user to find the relevant information, if available, or the appropriate level of detail may not be available to answer the user's enquiry.
If a member of an organisation does consult an internal, or external, source of information, then there is not necessarily a mechanism for identifying that enquiry, determining its nature or checking that any action has been completed. There is also no mechanism for ensuring that the information source is reliable. Therefore, there are significant potential risks and liabilities that an organisation may face as a result of members of the organisation consulting information sources outside of the organisation's control.
Some organisations have significant internal advisory resources, such as legal and human resources (HR) departments. However, not all organisations are sufficiently large to have such specialist advisors available to handle enquiries. Even large organisations that do have internal advisory resources, may not have the specialist expertise available to advise on all potential enquiries.
Therefore, there is a need to make advisory services available to all sizes of organisations in a controllable and bespoke manner. Hence, the present invention provides intelligent advisory services which can be seamlessly integrated into organisations of different sizes.